Doc Adams rides into Dodge City with a body covered by a blanket. He tells Matt Dillon that he found the dying man out on the prairie. The man had been badly cut in a manner to cause intense suffering.
Matt and Chester Goode leave Dodge to investigate. The pair come upon a wagon camped in Pawnee territory. They find a frightened woman named Abby hiding in the wagon. She warns them to leave her alone and tells them "He" will beat her if she is seen talking with them. Earl Ticks walks into the camp, and while Matt and Chester are talking with him, Ben Siple sneaks in behind them and captures them.
Ticks ties Matt and Chester to the wagon. They try to convince Abby to cut them loose, but she is too afraid of Siple's wrath. When Siple sees them talking, he kicks Matt in the head.
Later, when the people in the encampment hear Pawnee signals in the night, Siple and Ticks flee and leave Matt, Chester, and Abby behind to face whatever fate might await them.
The talented character actor John Anderson makes the first of twelve Gunsmoke appearances in this story. He plays the Ben Siple character with his usual level of excellence. Siple is another of those totally depraved unredeemable characters that often appeared in John Meston's stories. He is convinced he can do whatever he wants, and no one will stop him. He has surrounded himself with people who share that same belief. The character might be viewed as the anti-Matt Dillon.
Gifted actor Jack Klugman portrays Earl Ticks in his only Gunsmoke guest role. If Ben Siple is the anti-Matt Dillon, Earl Ticks is Chester's counterpart. He does not seem to share Siple's misanthropy, but he is complicit in Siple's depravity at least by his tolerance of it. The Ticks character lacks the ability to imagine any sort of life other than what partnering with Siple offers.
Actress Patricia Smith makes the first of two appearances in this story where she portrays Abby, a woman who has only known abuse from the men in her life. Smith returned in Season 6 as a woman who sets her sights on Chester.
Strong performances by everyone in the cast, taught direction and editing (especially in the famous fight scene), and a first-rate John Meston tale make this episode a must-see even for casual fans. Beware, however, the theme of abuse victims who cannot imagine an existence where they do not face abuse and the portrayal of the abuse -- both graphic and implied -- could make this episode difficult for some to stomach.
Meston also does a fantastic job of incorporating the disdain many American Indian groups had for white men hunting buffalo into extinction as part of the story.
This installment does include a curious element that occasionally appears in these early Gunsmoke episodes. Actions that appear to be absolutely criminal are allowed to occur with no legal repercussions. One would think holding people captive, attacking a U. S. Marshal, and mercilessly abusing a woman repeatedly would all be grounds for prosecution.
